James Bond Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

In the last 50 years, the name James Bond has become synonymous with masculine sophistication. Through iconic characteristics of confidence and wit, Bond’s image as a debonair Englishman has been carefully orchestrated and upheld. For this, much credit is due to the many secondary characters who exist primarily to index him as the ideal man, often at their expense. To achieve this, the films frequently employ methods of othering, particularly through exaggerating racial identities to the point of exoticization. While accusations that the Bond film series is riddled with racial stereotypes are not new, there exist gaps in scholarship addressing East Asian presence and stereotypes. This paper investigates (mis)representations of East Asian characters, examining them separately as allies and villains, through analyzing processes which mediatize their languages and cultures. Ultimately, it confronts the mediatization processes of East Asia within the Bond film series and explores the social meanings enregistered therein.

- by Phoebe Pua and +1
- •
- Media and Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Sociolinguistics, Gender and Sexuality

This paper contradicts interpretations of James Bond’s M, played by Judi Dench, as a feminist triumph. Through a focus on aging, it argues that the initially powerful M is ultimately reinscribed into patriarchy. In Dench’s eight films, M undergoes two processes of age-based reconfiguration: “post-sexualization” and “domestication.” Drawing on Mulvey’s and Butler’s psychoanalytic theories, this paper shows that, early on, M is post-sexualized as she is distanced from youthful femininity and aligned with phallic masculinity. Following this, and contrary to consensus that M’s domestication began in the Daniel Craig era, this paper contends that by the middle of the Pierce Brosnan era, M’s power is already exposed as a façade and she consequently enters the maternal realm. Expanding on Tasker’s writing on women in action films, this paper details how M’s authority not only shifts entirely into the maternal sphere but is also systematically stripped until she becomes a peculiar mother-child. Finally, this paper identifies an emerging pattern within popular media of turning Ma’ams to Moms to martyrs. Evidence is taken from Dench’s final Bond films and other contemporary action film series (Star Wars, The Hunger Games, and Divergent). This paper concludes that age has become a post-feminist strategy to neuter powerful women and return them to patriarchal and heteronormative frameworks.

- by Phoebe Pua
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- Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Film Studies, Popular Culture
- by Alex de Voogt
- •
- Aviation, - High-rise building (Architecture), HELICOPTER DESIGN, Lighthouses

James Bond'un Soğuk Savaş'ın en sıcak dönemlerinden birisinin yaşandığı 1962 yılından günümüze değin 23 adet film ve 6 farklı oyuncunun canlandırmış olduğu Bond kişiliği (persona: maske) ile adeta bir 'dizi-film' gibi, kendisini devamlı yenileyerek 'güncel' kalabilmeyi başarmış olduğu görülmektedir. Milletler üstü popüler kültürün önemli bir parçası olan Bond kimliğinin vazgeçilmez bir unsuru olarak, oyunculaşarak anlatıları dahi biçimlendirebildiği görünen sahne tasarımlarınınsa, 20. Yüzyıl'dan günümüze, mimarlık kitaplarının dışında da kalabilen popüler kültürdeki yaygın ve güncel eğilimleri saptayabilmek için her biri birer basın-yayın kazıbilim buluntusu olarak ele alınabilecek 23 adet olanak sunmakta olduğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışmada 19. Yüzyıl dedektif romanlarının yerini alan casus filmlerinin kendisinden sonra gelenleri için bir 'ilk tür' olan örneği Bond'un mekânlarından kurulu düzeni şahsında temsil eden M'ninki, mimarlıkla kimlik ve gelecek algısı bağlamlarında ele alınmıştır.

- by Saltuk Özemir and +1
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- Place and Identity, Cinematic Space, Interior Design, Place Identity
- by Douglas Cunningham
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- Psychoanalysis, Film Studies, Class, Masculinity

Skyfall (2012) signals a crisis in global espionage in a post-9/11 era of schizophrenic digital terror. James Bond and his enemy are both internally excluded from their agency-MI6-and this "abjection" leads to terrorist revenge and sovereign reaffirmation. The latter involves a survival test for 007's vulnerable body while simultaneously recovering a national identity for the United Kingdom. In this sense, James Bond mirrors Jason Bourne, the ex-CIA agent in the Jason Bourne film series. Bourne undergoes a similar abjection yet becomes neither terrorist nor sovereign but instead a symptom of perpetual mind-games. This chapter compares Bond to Bourne to enable a cognitive mapping of the twenty-first-century espionage genre and its global system of sovereignty and abjection.

- by Seung-hoon Jeong
- •
- Globalization, Terrorism, Sovereignty, Abjection

Whereas the city of London mainly served as a safe haven and as the backdrop for expository scenes in the early James Bond films, it has acquired a more prominent role within the most recent films in the series. Skyfall (2012), in particular, saw a significant departure from the franchise's traditional reliance on exotic locations and based nearly a third of its running time in the British capital. At the same time, the notion of Bond's 'coming home' (which serves as a dominant motif in the film) coincides with a paradigm shift in post-9/11 geopolitics. The article traces these developments by assessing Skyfall's depiction of London and how the film negotiates and adapts classic Bond tropes in the 'age of terrorism' .

- by Wieland Schwanebeck
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- Terrorism, Geopolitics, Colonialism, History Of London

This paper argues that 1960s and 1970s James Bond films have hybrid national identities because of their transatlantic production history, the Cold War relationships between Britain and the USA, and the international marketing of Bond as... more

- by Jonathan Bignell
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- Cold War and Culture, Film History, 1960s, James Bond

What do a super-spy and a butler have in common? James Bond the intelligence agent as a literary icon has been vivisected countless times to reflect British nationalism, ideology and geopolitics. Similarly, for Kazuo Ishiguro, Stevens the Butler from Remains of the Day represents "a myth of England that [is] known internationally" (Ishiguro; qtd. in Rushdie). Characters like Bond and Stevens allow critics to not only identify the way post-war Britain perceived itself, namely through its patriotism, material affluence, imperial power, and post-war glory, but also the ways in which its perception failed.

- by Chew Tzi Ling
- •
- National Identity, 20th Century British Literature, James Bond, Kazuo Ishiguro

The paper is part of the ‘Back Home’ research project carried out by a group of PhD students from the Polytechnic University of Milan within the framework of the Paquebot Laboratory. The goal of the present research is to reveal historical premises and sociocultural circumstances that provided the basis necessary for the development of the British post-war housing.
As one of the major sociocultural and architectural phenomena in the modern history of Great Britain, the new residential development has been taking shape under the impact of new realities of the post-war life. A descriptive research method has been applied in order to determine the most significant among these realities, such as the exigency of rebuilding and reforming the country immediately after the World War II, economic upheaval of the next two decades, introduction of new governmental policies, multiple cultural tendencies – form the Swinging Sixties to the Electric Eighties – and an intense critical debate of the period.
The study aims to answer the following research questions: what are the preconditions of the British post-war housing phenomenon, and what has determined the emergence of a new generation of architects ready to exploit new approaches to modernism and avant-garde in Great Britain in the 1950s-1980s. Special attention is paid to revealing innovative tendencies of art, fashion, music and cinema, which have transformed the country into the world’s cultural trendsetter for several decades and become a cardinal requirement for the residential development in post-war Great Britain.

- by Maria Mikaelyan
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- British History, Modern British History, Housing, The Beatles

“Anthony Burgess and Science Fiction”, Jim Clarke, SFRA Review 313, Summer 2015, pp. 28-35. Anthony Burgess was a reluctant writer of SF, but a highly influential one. This article, for the SFRA Review, introduces the author and his SF... more

- by Kevin Pinkham
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- British Literature, James Joyce, Anthony Burgess, George Orwell
- by David Vanderper
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- Ancient History, Geology, Medieval History, Science Education

The latest Bond flick No Time To Die was certainly a rollercoaster ride of exciting action scenes and great special effects, yet contained more than a quantum of longueurs. With a running time of 163 minutes it certainly tries the patience and the bladders of its audiences (who I saw popping out of the cinema throughout the film). Personally, I think 90 minutes is enough for any film, especially since the disappearance of the intermission and ice-cream selling of yore. In this case, the increased length seems to have been to incorporate backstories of some of the individuals involved. The effect of this is to attenuate Bond's appearances in the film, while adding very little to the story (hence the longueurs). By Official James Bond 007 Website One effect of this narrative style is to put more emphasis on the story of Bond and less on the usual geopolitics and action we associate with Bond films. Now this is very interesting considering that if one was to ask oneself: which country would be the most likely target and villain of the latest Bond film as a cultural representative of the world's imperialist and neocolonial powers? It would have to be: China.

- by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin
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- Comics Studies, Militarism, Identity (Culture), Comics
- by Dr Martin D. Brown
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- Cold War and Culture, Film and History, James Bond, Spy Fiction

This a first term of the third, final year essay for Contemporary Cinema module of Film Studies course at the undergraduate level. I wrote it in 2016 and scored 68% I believe. I didn't publish it here earlier because it's not a first class mark but as a long term committed fan of James Bond I feel compelled to share this simple argument with others that might be interested.

- by Dawid Sosin
- •
- Film Studies, Masculinity, Masculinities, Femininity

The James Bond film franchise has attracted much criticism for its depiction of women. The casting of Judi Dench in Goldeneye (Campbell, 1995), however, signalled the series’ potential to interrogate its own sexism. This article argues that Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006) and Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008) – the fifth and sixth films starring Dench as M and the first two starring Daniel Craig as Bond – effect the most significant revision of gender roles in the franchise to date. Taking us back to the beginning of his career, Casino Royale reconfigures Bond as fallible, vulnerable, and psychologically unstable, a man struggling to secure his identity as 007. Playing a much more significant role than she did in the Pierce Brosnan films, M criticises Bond’s weaknesses and mistakes, but she also contributes in important ways to shaping his identity-in-process in her complex role as boss/mentor/mother. Nevertheless, M’s power over Bond is ultimately too threatening to his mythic masculine identity. This article contends that in Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) the series reverts to its tradition of undermining and erasing powerful women by killing off the female usurper and restoring MI6 to a male-dominated space.

- by Linda Wight
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- Gender, James Bond
- by Noopur Raval
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- James Bond, Espionage, Cinematic city, Spy Fiction
- by Patrick Callahan
- •
- Classical Mythology, James Bond, Ian Fleming

This article considers Skyfall (Dir. Mendes, 2012) and the rebooting of James Bond. Using feminist and geopolitical theorizing, the focus is on the aging body. No other Bond film has been so preoccupied with aging and whether Bond can... more

- by Klaus Dodds
- •
- Film Studies, Resilience, The Body, Popular Geopolitics

A conventional self-image Americans hold of themselves and their society in these final years of the twentieth century is that of a practical, realistic people engaged in building an ever larger and more complex technological civilization. At the same time, however, we spend countless billions on activities and products that fly in the face of our supposed commitment to a down-to-earth realism: Our movies, television programs, sports events, va¬cations, fashions, and cosmetics seem to be the pastimes of a whimsical, fantasy-ridden people rather than of the stalwart folk of our national stereotype. How are these conflicting images to be reconciled? Are we really a practical, self-reliant people who simply like to escape our busy lives occasionally by retreating into a fantasy world? Or is our vaunted practicality and common sense actually a mask for a frivolous, wasteful nature intent on partying while Rome burns and the national debt ratchets up another trillion dollars?
This book sets out to explore those conflicting self-images by focusing on the intimate ties our daily activity and thought have with a world of myth. Written from the perspective of a cultural anthropologist, American Dream¬time approaches modern culture as an anthropologist does a “primitive” society, seeking in its myths and rituals clues to its fundamental nature.

- by Lee Drummond
- •
- Semiotics, Anthropology, Movies, Star Wars

- by Jim Clarke
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- British Literature, James Joyce, SF History, Anthony Burgess

The James Bond series has maintained its brand identity through the James Bond character, recurring plot elements, and its film design, in particular the credits sequences of Maurice Binder, Robert Brownjohn, MK12, and Daniel Kleinman. This chapter will examine the work of Binder, who created fourteen of the first eighteen Bond titles and has been rightly singled out as one of a new generation of title designers who utilized modernist aesthetics to create a specific look for the James Bond franchise. The chapter also asks how the digital turn, which coincided with the transition from Binder to Kleinman in the 1990s, has impacted the design and aesthetics of the James Bond title sequences.

- by Jan-Christopher Horak
- •
- Design, Film Studies, Graphic Design, American Cinema
- by Norbert Spehner
- •
- James Bond, Espionage, Spy Fiction, Ian Fleming

This essay provides an analysis of the use of musical themes in Casino Royale (2006), the alleged reboot of the long-running James Bond film franchise. It argues that the balance of both new and familiar musical themes in the film helps to excite the viewer, while still making them aware that they are watching a Bond film. The use of silence as a narrative device in the film is also discussed.

- by Megen de Bruin-Molé
- •
- Music, Film Music And Sound, Analysis of Film Music, James Bond

The chapter explores romantic love as developed in the character of James Bond through the film music of John Barry. It asserts that dramatic musical expression of romantic melancholy heightens film pathos by drawing the audience into personal involvement with depths and complexities of Bond’s character. Romantic idioms in melody, orchestration, and harmony—particularly in the songs and their treatment—express subtle melancholy that contributes to contrasting developmental aspects of Bond’s basic action-hero character over a span of Bond films scored by Barry, and are keys to capturing the unique emotional essence of each film. This function of music is typically enhanced in quieter, more reflective parts of the scores—usually within sexual love and/or scenic grandeur contexts—employing dramatic musical devices of the Romantic Period, such as those of Wagnerian opera. In selected Bond films scored by Barry, specific elements and characteristics of thematic development are analyzed. Foundational aspects of critical inquiry of romantic music, drama, film theory, and the psychology of emotion and music provide supportive framework to the thesis.

- by Karl Madden
- •
- Film Music And Sound, Analysis of Film Music, James Bond

This paper deals with the use of women's names in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Fleming's main naming strategy was to choose names that tell us something about the characters, names that correspond to their personalities, their occupations or the roles they play in the stories. This is often achieved by providing them with allusive names that hint at several meanings, using polysemy, etymology, or lexical or even phonological associations. Many of these names are given an explanation in the novels, but underneath this explanation there are always others. Special attention has been paid to the cases where I believe the heroines do not have allusive names. I suggest that this has to do with the fact that these women are the ones with the most complex and real characters, and real characters must have real names.

- by Per Vikstrand
- •
- English Literature, Literary Onomastics, James Bond, Personal Names

Questo lavoro nasce con l’intento di trovare la soluzione a un problema che normalmente nessuno sembra volersi porre: come si riconoscono i personaggi?
Prima di andare a osservare le possibili vie alla risposta, è opportuno focalizzare l’oggetto d’indagine; il personaggio di cui si tratta qui è quello seriale, che abita universi narrativi che non si limitano a un solo testo, ma che proseguono la propria esistenza in maniera continuata, attraversando il tempo e i media, coprendo diverse generazioni e sopravvivendo addirittura ai propri autori.
In un panorama di continua espansione e riscrittura, il personaggio necessita di strategie che gli permettano di resistere ai cambi di tempo, di contesto e di medium; in sostanza, egli ha bisogno di qualcosa che lo renda sé stesso a prescindere dal testo in cui è inserito.

- by Nicolò Villani
- •
- Semiotics, Cross-Media Studies, Multimedia, Identity (Culture)

Bu çalışma, sembolik tüketimin ve marka iletişiminin önemli kavramlarından biri olan
marka imajının, popüler kültür ikonları üzerinden yapılan imaj transferiyle
desteklenmesini sorgulamak amacındadır. Bu bağlamda önemli bir popüler kültür
ikonu olan James Bond karakterinin, markalarla etkileşiminden ortaya çıkan imaj
transferi kavramı, ürün yerleştirme ve marka iletişim kampanyaları üzerinden
incelenmiştir. Markaların, marka imajına pozitif katkıda bulunması amacıyla,
tüketicilerin hayranlık duyduğu ikon karakterlerin marka iletişimine dahil edilmesi,
marka imaj transferinin oluşmasını sağlayan etmenlerden biridir. Sinema tarihinin en
uzun ve en önemli serilerin biri olan James Bond filmleri araştırma için seçilmiştir.
James Bond karakterinin marka imaj transferine katkısının araştırılması için James
Bond serisi içindeki Casino Royale (2006) ve Skyfall (2012) filmleri içerik
çözümlemesi tekniğiyle incelenerek marka imaj transferi yapısı ortaya çıkarılmıştır.
Çalışmanın ulaştığı sonuçlara göre; markaların, Bond filmlerinde görülmesiyle birlikte
James Bond karakterinin etkileyici özelliklerinin, markanın imajına yansıması
sonucunda başarılı bir marka imaj transferi oluşturulduğu görülmüştür. Ayrıca yapılan
iletişim çalışmalarıyla birlikte 007 Özel Seri ürünleri de piyasaya sürülerek, James
Bond’un karakterinden elde edilen imaj transferi tüketici gözünde pekiştirildiği
saptanmıştır. James Bond karakterinin imajıyla kullanılan markaların imajlarının
benzeştiği görülmüştür.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Tüketim kültürü, sembolik tüketim, popüler kültür ikonları,
marka imajı, marka imaj transferi, James Bond, 007 James Bond filmleri

- by Rıdvan Öner
- •
- Consumer Culture, Brand Image, Product Placement, James Bond

Heroism consists of actions that must help others, even if it is a possibility and risk of the helper s injury or even death. Some people consider heroism to be very close to altruism, but it is different. Where altruism emphasizes self-denying acts that help others, heroism means a personal sacrifice. The kernel of heroism rotates around of the obligation of the person to a noble goal and readiness to accept a consequence of fighting for this goal. Heroism is old as humanity itself. The human bent fort commemorating heroes is a universal quality of human culture. Heroes are honored in ancient paintings, folklore and myth. Societies dispatched such stories in oral traditions and legends, and myths into epic poems and eddas. Modern societies uphold the tradition of honoring heroes not only in literally masterpieces but also in movies and journalism. Some of heroic ideas are becoming lost or changed by general culture. Being a hero is not just being an outstanding figure. We believe it has become needful to revise the historical senses of the word, and to force it to arrive in modern timeframes. Historically, heroism has been closely connected with military service, although social heroism also deserves close research. For instance, Achilles is the archetypal war hero, whose values were so strong, that Socrates willingness to die for it was also a heroic exploit. Heroism that consist a notable idea is usually not so dramatic like heroism that entails direct physical risk. These different ways of exhorting with the heroic ideal mean a deeper, more tangled definition of heroism. Actions considered as heroic are ordinarily made voluntarily in the sense that they are not compelled by external pressures or at least go out the bounds of the behavior ordinarily prompted by external pressures. By understanding of heroism as a universal characteristic of human nature, not as an unusual feature, heroism becomes something that stands in the line of possibilities for everyone, possibly inspiring us to answer that call. The thought about the banality of heroism disrobes the myth of the heroic elect. It is a myth that strengthens two fundamental human tendencies: to attribute very rare personal feature to special people who do special feats-to see them as superhuman, comparing to the rest of us and the trap of inertial some people call it as the bystander effect. Investigation has shown that this effect is often motivated by scattering of responsibility. In their article The Banality of Heroism , Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo tell that heroism is made up of four autonomous measurements at least (based on authors analysis of many acts that they consider heroic). First, heroism involves some type of quest, which may range from the preservation of life to the preservation of an ideal (Franco, Zimbardo). Second, heroism should have some form of sacrifice (risk). This can be some form of physical danger or a strong social sacrifice. The physical risks in this case are clearly heroic in nature. For instance, Tom Cahill, a researcher from the University of California, called a press conference where defined the EPA s findings that in the after-grass of the September 11 events the air nearby Ground Zero was safe for breathing. With this action he risked his confidence as a scientist. Third, the heroic feat may be active or passive. Often we think of heroism as a courageous activity, something that is clearly perceptible. But some forms of heroism involve passive opposition or reluctance to be moved. And finally, heroism may be an unexpected, one time action, or something that continues over a longer time period. This may have a meaning that heroism may be a nearly immediate reaction to a situation. Or it may be a well considered series of actions endure over days, months, ANGELINO

- by ELI ANGELINO
- •
- Critical Theory, Management, Marketing, Discourse Analysis

After working as a personal assistant during the Second World War to John Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy, Ian Fleming designed James Bond as a prominent fictional British agent from the novel Casino Royale (1953) onward. Bond completes the assignments while simultaneously enjoying the bachelor lifestyle and this has always intrigued many readers and spectators. His life is also enriched by consumerism and more essentially, effortless seduction to limitless sex. Meanwhile his sexual encounters stress his freedom from commitment as well as his embodied British national power, his interactions with most of the Bond Girls since the first Bond movie Dr No (1962) however lack mutual comfort and connection. My dissertation analyses four generations of James Bond movies: Thunderball (1965), Moonraker (1979), GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006). These four sources substantiate that the legendary womaniser Bond is instead very much incapable of seducing most of his Bond Girls. As each of the Girl provides a certain extent of intelligence leading to the antagonists, the deficient Bondian seduction therefore hinders both his capacity in national security maintenance as well as his possibility of relishing splendid sexual life.

- by Alvin Ng
- •
- Evolutionary Psychology, Gender Studies, James Bond, Seduction
- by Ishay Landa
- •
- Popular Culture, Friedrich Nietzsche, The Cold War, James Bond
- by JOHANNA LOZOYA
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- Cultural History, Design, Architecture, Cold War and Culture
- by Simon Spiegel
- •
- Film Studies, Film History, James Bond

La presente ricerca si propone di analizzare il ventitreesimo episodio della saga cinematografica di 007 "Skyfall" (2012), diretto da Sam Mendes, in relazione alle tematiche del trauma. In particolare viene formulata l'ipotesi che il film, per elaborare eventi traumatici come la fine del "mondo vero" e la rivoluzione digitale, adotti soluzioni visive e narrative tipiche del cinema post-mortem.

- by Silvia Torani
- •
- Gender Studies, Film Studies, Film Analysis, Digital Cinema
- by Finola Kerrigan
- •
- Music, Film Studies, Film Promotion and Marketing (Film Studies), Branding

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- by Thomas Townend
- •
- British Literature, Geopolitics, Cold War and Culture, Graham Greene

This article assesses the colonial legacy in the long-running James Bond
franchise. While various Bond scholars have repeatedly stressed the 007 franchise’s indebtedness to the geopolitical coordinates and mentality of 19th century imperialism and to the Victorian era’s ideals of masculinity, this article is the first one to read a Bond film (A VIEW TO A KILL, Roger Moore’s final adventure in the role as 007) as an adaptation of a colonialist-era pretext, in this case: H. Rider Haggard’s seminal Africa novel, KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1885). Out of the numerous
parallels drawn between both texts, the role of the aged adventurer, the
significance of the map and its psychosexual connotations, as well as the nightmarish construction of an animalistic, racialised female Other are highlighted in this reading. It culminates in a brief assessment of the most recent Bond films, as both SKYFALL (2012) and SPECTRE (2015), in spite of some (postcolonial) adjustments, continue to be indebted to an imperialist mental framework.

- by Wieland Schwanebeck
- •
- Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, James Bond, Rider Haggard

El presente trabajo analiza la caracterización de Spectra en la saga cinematográfica de James Bond desde el primer título hasta 1985. Para ello describimos las herramientas y recursos narrativos empleados con el objetivo de construir un enemigo a través de una fantasía. Las implicaciones políticas, históricas y culturales de una saga que se creó bajo el telón de fondo de la Guerra Fría, así como el respaldo de taquilla, favorecen su interés académico. El análisis revela la forma en que este género de acción presentó de forma velada al bloque soviético, sirviéndose de una narrativa truculenta y de cierta comicidad.

- by Revista Internacional de Historia de la Comunicación
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- Propaganda, Cinema, James Bond, Comunismo